The endlessly rehashed Anyone But Corbyn propaganda narrative that Corbyn is responsible for Brexit has to be one of the most ridiculous political tropes ever devised. In this article I'm going to outline 12 reasons that the "Blame Corbyn for Brexit" narrative is intensely stupid balderdash that only the truly gullible could ever accept at face value.
The pre-planned coup plot
The first and most obvious problem with the "Blame Corbyn" narrative that it's Jeremy Corbyn's fault that the UK electorate voted for Brexit is the incontrovertible evidence that the Anyone But Corbyn coup was being planned weeks before the referendum result was even known. The hubristic coup-plotters were so sure that their putsch was going to succeed that they decided to brief the Daily Telegraph about how they were going to force Corbyn to resign with a co-ordinated 24 hour Blitz of resignations after the referendum.
The incontrovertible evidence that the coup-plot was being planned long before the result of the EU referendum was even known makes it absolutely clear that even if Remain had won, the coup-plotters would have launched their anti-Corbyn revolt anyway at some point. The fact that Remain lost was just a convenient excuse for a coup-plot that was always going to happen.
Another indicator that Brexit is just a convenient excuse for an anti-Corbyn putsch that was always going to happen sooner or later is the incredible change of tune from Angela Eagle.
She went from praising Jeremy Corbyn's tireless commitment to the Remain campaign on June 13th to bitterly slagging him off for his "half-hearted ambivalence" when the coup-plot was launched just two weeks later..
Either Angela Eagle was lying on June 13th, or she was lying on June 27th. There's no way that both statements can be accepted at face value. So even if you want to believe her second statement, you've got to realise that you're choosing to accept the testimony of a blatantly dishonest witness.
What about David Cameron?
If any one person is to blame for Brexit it's clearly David Cameron. He decided to gamble the entire future of the UK in order to gain a little bit of party political advantage at the 2015 General Election, then lost it after 58% of Tory voters decided to ignore him and vote for Brexit.
Cameron's fearmongering rhetoric returned 58% of Tory voters for Leave, while Corbyn's approach delivered 63% of Labour voters for Remain. Just imagine the levels of foolish anti-Corbyn tunnel vision the coup-plotters must have been suffering to turn this ideal opportunity to slam David Cameron and the Tories into a parade of Labour MPs overwriting that narrative by yacking on about how Jeremy Corbyn is to blame!
What about Theresa May?
One of the most bizarre things is the easy ride that Theresa May has been given for her self-serving non-campaign during the referendum debate. If any high profile politician was actually guilty of conducting a lacklustre and half-hearted Remain campaign it was Theresa May, not Jeremy Corbyn. Yet somehow Corbyn has been hammered by the mainstream press while Theresa May's non-campaign was actually widely praised as "a restrained approach to campaigning" and for demonstrating her leadership ambitions!
What about the Labour Leave shills for the Tory party?
One of the biggest problems faced by Jeremy Corbyn in convincing Labour voters to support the Remain campaign was the existence of a Tory Trojan Horse operation within the Labour ranks called Labour Leave. This campaign to completely undermine the official Labour party stance on Brexit was bankrolled by a bunch of Tories, with every single registered donation coming from Tory donors or the right-wing Vote Leave mob.
Sadiq Khan actually tried to blame Jeremy Corbyn for the fact that a significant percentage Labour voters were confused about the official party stance when he knows perfectly well that a bunch of Labour Party MPs were guilty of using masses of Tory cash to deliberately undermine the party leadership.
Anyone directing their anger at Jeremy Corbyn rather than the Labour Leave shills is clearly playing synthetic outrage mind games.
What about Gisela Stuart and the lying Vote Leave mob?
It's incredible that the Anyone But Corbyn camp have repeatedly expressed outrage about Corbyn's efforts during the EU referendum debate, but haven't found a word of criticism for their fellow Labour Party politicians like Gisela Stuart, who spent the campaign riding around on that bloody £350 million for the NHS Vote Leave bus with her mates Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and the UKIP MP Douglas Carswell! In fact Stewart was actually the one who came up with the £350 million for the NHS lie in the first place.
That the Anyone But Corbyn camp have repeatedly expressed outrage about Corbyn's performance, but they've got no criticism whatever for someone who deliberately went around trying converting Labour voters to vote for Brexit is an illustration of the fact that Brexit-blaming tactics are just an excuse to stick the knife into Corbyn.
What about Will Straw?
Will Straw was the leader of the catastrophically uninspiring official Remain campaign. After weeks of the Westminster establishment lambasting Jeremy Corbyn for Brexit, they suddenly changed tune when David Cameron decided to hand Will Straw a CBE, with no high-profile Labour figures coming out to criticise the award.
Isn't it extraordinary that Corbyn gets singled out for all of the abuse over Brexit while one of the main culprits for the failure of the official Remain campaign gets handed a bloody CBE within weeks of its failure?
63% is actually quite good
If you put the 63% of Labour voters who voted Remain into perspective by comparing it with other parties, it turns out that it was only 1% short of the SNP who achieved 64% in favour of Remain.
Getting that close to the SNP is actually an incredible achievement for two reasons. Firstly, unlike Corbyn, the SNP leadership didn't have to deal with a Tory Trojan Horse campaign within their own party undermining the official party stance*. Secondly SNP voters had a huge incentive to vote Remain because a Remain Vote in Scotland and a Leave vote in England was clearly going to enhance the case for a second Scottish independence referendum.
To get that close to the SNP leve of support for Remain was actually quite an impressive feat, yet the Anyone But Corbyn camp are trying to convince you that it was a disaster.
Honesty
Jeremy Corbyn was one of the only high-profile politicians who didn't engage in the hysterical project fear and false-promises as the majority of politicians on either side of the debate. In many people's judgement it's actually to his credit that he decided to treat the electorate like adults rather than a bunch of sub-juvenile halfwits who can be goaded into supporting one side or another through threats, fearmongering, false-promises and outright lies.
During the Campaign Corbyn was rated as by far the most trustworthy Labour politician on plus 17% with his closest Labour party challenger being Alan Johnson on minus 10%!
When people complain that Corbyn's fact and evidence based arguments in favour of Remain were not "Passionate" enough, essentially what they're saying is that they prefer the fearmongering nonsense, misleading rhetoric, false-promises, conspiracy theory nonsense, threats and outright lies spouted by the likes of David Cameron and Boris Johnson, and that in modern politics the truth is a shit debating tactic.
Platform-sharing
One of the most ridiculous Corbyn criticisms of all is that he refused to share a platform with David Cameron.
It's as if these people learned absolutely nothing from the complete annihilation of their once impenetrable Labour Party Scottish heartlands in 2015 when they lost 40 of their 41 seats after sharing a platform with the Tories during the independence debate, and then trying to force a prescription of toxic austerity-lite down the necks of Scottish voters and allowing the SNP to steal the centre-left anti-austerity ground from under their damned feet.
Contempt for the electorate
The idea that the electorate decided to vote for Brexit simply because Corbyn didn't campaign correctly is deeply patronising to people who did vote for Brexit. I'm guessing that there are quite a lot of Brexit voters out there who realised that Corbyn was making a decent respectful case in favour of Remain, but decided to vote Leave for their own reasons.
Corbyn's decision to address both sides of the argument during the campaign instead of running an absolutist fear-based propaganda campaign could have been an enormous asset to the Labour Party in the post-Brexit bridge-building process, but instead the Labour Party establishment have decided to insult all Brexit voters by refusing to consider the actual reasons they voted the way they did, and using it as nothing more than an excuse to whack Jeremy Corbyn.
Damaging the Labour Party
Form a Labour Party perspective probably the worst thing about this decision to attach a load of Brexit-blame to Corbyn, rather than focusing their anger on people who actually deserve it (David Cameron, the lying Vote Leave mob, the Labour Leave shills, Will Straw, Theresa May) is the damage it's done to the Labour Party.
Instead of speaking with a unified voice in condemnation of David Cameron's failed EU gamble and the myriad lies spouted by the Tory Vote Leave mob, the Labour coup-plotters have completely over-written the public narrative that Tory infighting was the cause of Brexit with one that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are to blame for it!
In order to score political points against their own party leader they've completely squandered the best attack point they've had in decades to hurt the Tory party with. It's as if these people care more about deposing Jeremy Corbyn than they do about actually opposing the Tories.
Conclusion
Nobody is claiming that Jeremy Corbyn is faultless. His first eleven months as labour party leader have been a very steep learning curve for a guy who never seriously envisioned himself as a political leader. He's made mistakes (he's clearly in need of organisational help, he really needs to focus on making his political points more concisely, and he needs to begin using the huge Labour Party membership more effectively) but his stance during the EU referendum debate stood out as being a refreshingly honest beacon in a filthy tide of fearmongering, threats, fantasy land promises, conspiracy theories and outright lies.
Anyone still spouting "Blame Corbyn for Brexit" naratives despite all of the available evidence that it's idiocy deserves to be ridiculed, but these days public folk narratives quickly get set in stone, so thanks to the Labour coup-plotters, millions of people will now always associate Brexit with Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, no matter how often that narrative is exposed as a load of idiotic drivel.
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* = If anyone within the SNP had taken Tory cash in order to bankroll a campaign against the official SNP position it's beyond doubt that they would be facing disciplinary procedures. The fact that the Labour Leave people who decided to use Tory cash to undermine the Labour leadership are not facing disciplinary procedures is quite extraordinary.
